What Do I Qualify for as Far as the Post 9/11 GI Bill?
Q: What do I qualify for as far as the Post 9/11 GI Bill?
A: It really depends on when you served, for how long and whether your service was on active duty or in a Reserve Component. Generally speaking, to qualify for the Post 9/11 GI Bill, you had to serve for at least 90-days on a Title 10 order after September 10, 2001.
If you are in one of the Reserve Components, i.e. Reserve of National Guard, then your Title 10 service had to be in support of a contingency operation, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and a whole host of others. A typical one-year deployment would place you at the 60% Post 9/11 GI Bill tier.
To transfer benefits to a dependent, you would have had to serve at least six years in the Armed Forces and agree to serve an additional four years. Transferred benefit recipients inherit the same tier percentage as the sponsor making the transfer.
For active duty servicemembers, the rules are slightly different. They have to serve for at least six years (of which at least three years had to be after September 10, 2011) and agree to serve an additional four years, but active duty time is Title 10 time already. The only time that doesn’t count in the beginning is training time, and after 24 months of service, even that time counts toward Post 9/11 GI Bill eligibility.
The other difference is active duty personnel have to be at the 100% Post 9/11 GI Bill tier before they can transfer benefits to a dependent. That requires at least three years of their six years of required service be after September 10, 2001.